TRENTON
- Attorney General Anne Milgram announced
that an Ocean County man has been sentenced
to prison for filing a fraudulent automobile
theft claim.

According
to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden
Brown, Paul C. Williams, 38, of Beachwood,
was sentenced Friday to three years in state
prison by Superior Court Judge James Den
Uyl in Ocean County. Williams was sentenced
pursuant to his Sept. 22 guilty plea to
insurance fraud, a charge contained in a
Sept. 26, 2007, Ocean County grand jury
indictment. Williams’ sentence will
be served concurrently with a five-year
sentence he is now serving as a result of
his guilty plea to a weapons charge filed
by the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s
Office.

In
pleading guilty to insurance fraud, Williams
admitted that on June 19, 2004, he falsely
reported to the Seaside Heights Police Department
that his 2001 Honda Accord had been stolen.
Williams admitted that he subsequently submitted
a false automobile theft claim to Liberty
Mutual Insurance Company. Williams also
submitted a false automobile theft affidavit
as well as a forged power of attorney in
support of his claim to Liberty Mutual.
The car was later recovered in the Parkridge
Apartments parking lot on Walnut Street
in Toms River.

Williams
was also sentenced on Friday by Judge Den
Uyl in an unrelated Ocean County case in
which he pleaded guilty to numerous charges
brought by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s
Office, including criminal mischief, receiving
stolen property, and passing bad checks.
Williams was sentenced to seven years in
prison on those charges, with the sentence
to run concurrently with the other sentences.

Detective
Christine Fiscella and Deputy Attorney General
Paul D. Santangini were assigned to the
investigation. Santangini represented the
State at the sentencing. Assistant Prosecutor
Bridget Coughlin handled the Ocean County
case for the Ocean County Prosecutor’s
Office.

This case was referred to the Office of
the Insurance Fraud Prosecutor by the Special
Investigative Unit of Liberty Mutual Insurance
Company, which initially uncovered the fraud
and assisted OIFP in the investigation.
Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Brown thanked
Liberty Mutual for their assistance in this
matter.